


Let's Just Do It

by Azure_Lynx



Category: Timeless (TV 2016)
Genre: A whole lot of angst, F/M, Impending Death, Lots of it, Marriage Proposal, Mid-Episode Insert, Some Fluff, bad timing, emotion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-16
Updated: 2018-05-16
Packaged: 2019-05-07 15:12:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14673735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Azure_Lynx/pseuds/Azure_Lynx
Summary: He wasn't supposed to come back for her, but here he is, and he's offering her everything she could ever want and everything she knows she can never have. But she wants to say yes anyway.(Takes place after Rufus finds Jiya in the saloon, mid s2e10. Spoilers for the finale.)





	Let's Just Do It

“I don’t have a ring,” Rufus says suddenly, and Jiya thinks that’s a damn strange thing to say in the middle of a backroom of a bar in 1888, a bar she just told him he’s going to die in but he doesn’t seem to fucking understand what that means.

“What?” is all she can say, as he sits down on her bed, ruffling the sheets, and she’d be lying if she said she hadn’t dreamed of this moment - but there’s a real thin line between dreams and nightmares, these days, and she had never wanted them to happen outside of the safety of sleep.

“I don’t have a ring,” he repeats. “And your dad - he’s in Lebanon - though I think you’d kill me if I tried to ask your dad for permission? Or maybe not. I haven’t really had a whole lot of time to think through the details…”

“Rufus,” she interrupts him, and she suddenly thinks she knows where this is going, rings and dads and all that, but she can’t, she just can’t.

He says it anyway. “Marry me.”

“Rufus,” she whines, and it’s accusatory, because she can’t understand why he’s doing this to her, when he should know that it’s impossible and all it does is tear her apart with a thousand tiny paper cuts. 

“When we get out of here” - not if, but when, he says - “when this is all over, marry me. We’ll leave the bunker for a day and I’ll buy you a ring and a dress - or we can go back to the eighties and get something you’ll love - please, Jiya. Let’s just do it.”

“Rufus.” It’s a whisper now. It hurts, because she wants it desperately - she wants to go home, she wants to wear jeans and cotton t-shirts and sweaters and a fancy lace dress from the eighties, she wants to have a diamond on her finger, _she wants to be his wife_ \- but she’s seen a million different outcomes and none of them make that possible. 

“Just say yes.” He stands up, crosses the room to her, and reaches out, his hands stopping just short of her arms. He must know - it’s been less than a day for him, but for her it’s been three years. 

She broke up with him in her head a long time ago.

“Jiya,” he says again, and his voice breaks on her name. “Jiya, I _love_ you.”

And suddenly it doesn’t matter that she did, because she wants him back, more than she’s ever wanted anything in her life before. 

She groans, anguished and surrendering. He looks like he thinks it’s a rejection, and his face falls, but she moves towards him and crashes her face into his, both hands on either side of the jaw she’d resigned herself to never holding again, body wrapped firmly in the arms she resigned herself to never feeling again.

“Okay,” she says when she pulls away, with more conviction than she feels. He’s smiling dopily at her, the kind of ridiculously-in-love smile she hasn’t seen in forever and didn’t realize how much she missed, and it’s worth it. “I love you, and if we get out of here, I’ll marry you. I’ll do anything you want.”

“ _When_ we get out,” he corrects her, still smiling, and for all the faith he lacks in a higher power, he has it in her. In all of them.

Her stomach is in her shoes, and she wishes she could believe like he does.

“Lucy’s coming,” Rufus says. “We just have to sit tight.” And he pulls her over to sit on the bed and holds her so close they are literally sitting tight and it isn’t so bad. 

Inside her brain, every second til 7pm is ticking by, beating against her skull, the imagined sound complete agony. Jiya needs a distraction, but there’s only so much they can do right now. If she tries to think of something, she’ll just run into the same issues again and again.

Rufus provides his own distraction, as though he can read her mind, and she guesses nothing’s really changed on his end of things. “We’ll go to a courthouse. It’ll be a whole day,” he suggests. “We can bring everyone. Agent Christopher and Malcolm are kind of like the Mother and Father role - we’ll just share them. Parents of the Bride and Groom.”

She lets out a gasping laugh at that, trying to imagine Malcolm and Agent Christopher as co-parents and failing miserably. “Lucy will be excited,” she offers half-heartedly, though if she actually believe any of it could be possible she’d be far more upbeat. 

Hell, she’d be losing it. 

Back in the bunker, waiting while he cavorted about time and space, she’d passed the time imagining Rufus proposing, though they hadn’t been together long enough for it to seem really possible. _(Nothing like the threat of dying to kick your ass into matrimonial gear.)_ Her ideas had been simple - the bunker was the most common, the most likely, but there was also a park dream and a “we’re grabbing fast food away from everyone else” dream and a “we’re finally free so we’re visiting your family in Lebanon and the beautiful country inspired me to do it” kind of dream.

That last one wasn’t necessarily simple, but it was good to have some variety.

What she had never dreamed about was being proposed to, sans ring, in a cockroach-infested, death-bringing, 19th century saloon. But Jiya took what she could get, these days. 

“And Wyatt can be my best man and Flynn will probably make some grouchy comment about not having an official role but will also try to bring a gun into the courthouse.” Rufus barks a laugh, surprisingly fondly. “It’ll be great.”

“Yeah.” Jiya gives a small smile, and this time it’s actually genuine. “It will be.” His attitude is infectious, and for a second, she’s lost in a happy, peaceful dream. 

_They grab a dress from the eighties, and she wears pearls and does her hair up real nice. Rufus buys her carnations and Lucy tucks one in Jiya’s hair before they hop in a military vehicle and go down to the courthouse. Malcolm walks her down the makeshift aisle, because they can still have a bit of fun with it. She and Rufus sign some papers, kiss in front of their friends, head back to the bunker, and then -_ Jiya stops her train of thought, but apparently the three year dry spell is really getting to her.

Rufus pulls her head into his lap and strokes her hair with one hand, resting the other on her hip, and for a while, Jiya can believe everything is alright.

And then Lucy shows up with Wyatt and Flynn and Jiya remembers how grim the reality truly is.

**Author's Note:**

> Before the finale I was like "I wanna write something fluffy where Rufus proposes to Jiya in the bunker." After the finale i was like....what if he proposed right before he died instead. So here, have some pain, because apparently I love it.   
> These two are my faves, and I just want them to be happy. I hope you all enjoy this quiet, sad moment amidst the storm.


End file.
